I used this exercsie with 40+ gradutaes recently. The briefs for each team were clear and easy to use. The information provided for the facilitators was also clear and helped the additional facilitators enormously. The delegates found the exercise interesting, fun and energising. The learning which was brought out also was very valuable and was developed further during the remainder of the course programme. I can thoroughly recommend this exercise and would only add that it is useful to produce a matrix to monitor which team is meeting with which team to ensure that they do not 'cheat' and try and have more than their allocated meetings!

I used an adapted version of A Bridge Too Far last week at Westward Housing Group’s first ever staff conference. The organisation was recently formed through the bringing together of 4 separate housing associations into a group structure and one of the aims of the conference was to bring people together to help them to get to know each other better, understand each others’ roles, and begin working more effectively together (especially across different departments, functions etc as well as the different organisations within the group).

My teambuilding workshop had to support these overall aims, but was only 1 hour long, and had to be run 3 times during the course of the day, with around 55 people in each session. Fortunately, with such large numbers, I had a very big room with lots of moving around space to do it in.

After an initial icebreaker where I got everyone to stand up and walk around the room and shaking hands and introducing themselves to 4 people whom they had never met before, I introduced the task. Basically I followed the same format as in your instructions except that I reduced the times to 30 minutes to design and build their element of the bridge with 2 minutes to assemble it, and just 15 minutes for discussion afterwards.

Everyone had a sweet on their seat at the beginning with a coloured wrapper and these colours signified the teams people would be in so that they were randomly mixed up and were in teams with a range of people from different parts of the organisation. (I colour coded each team so that all their materials, pens, post-its, instruction sheets, hats etc were all in that colour, which worked really well and helped to give each team an identity. I even gave out appropriately coloured party poppers and indoor sparklers for people to set off at the grand unveiling!)

In order to make it easier to complete the task in the shortened time (and because of the big team sizes) I allowed each team 2 communications experts rather than just one, and I gave them glittery hats to wear (I do find that the prospect of wearing a glittery hat always helps draws out willing volunteers!) I also allowed them to have 2 verbal conversations with other comm.s experts as well as using the message boards (again just to speed up the process slightly without losing too much of the learning). I also adapted the brief, and told them that they were re-building the Tamar Bridge (they were all from Devon & Cornwall) after their organisation had caused its collapse by holding a sponsored event to break the world record for the number of people jumping up and down on the bridge at once – many of them seemed to take on a real responsibility to sort out the problem as though it was actually true!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, despite my worries about numbers, timings etc, the whole thing worked brilliantly, and it was fascinating to see how in each of the three workshops, people dealt with it slightly differently, thus raising different learning points. Overall, the activity really helped to break down barriers and encourage mixing and communicating between different bits of the organisation, as well as resulting in some great discussion about team-working both within and between different teams. The only drawback was that due to the large sizes of the teams (between 10 and 14 in each team) this meant that it was too easy for some people to sit back on not get actively involved (although we did highlight this as a learning point in the discussions).

I’m still waiting for the written comments from the evaluations, but all the verbal feedback was excellent – there was loads of energy and some amazing bridges (even if they didn’t stay standing for very long!)

Overall, I just wanted to say that A Bridge Too Far was the perfect exercise for the task in hand. It was easy to adapt to suit timings, numbers etc, and offered lively, participative activity whilst highlight valuable learning points, so many thanks! I will definitely use it again in future.

This activity is used at the end of the day to put their learning from questioning, listening and customer service all together. Unless they communicate properly with Sandy Shore then they won’t find out what the needs of the fish are and won’t complete an adequate fish tank. This highlights the need for using proper communication skills and the delegates have a lot of fun competing against their colleagues. I did find the calculations a little complicated to work out but enjoyed facilitating this one.

I recently used this as a group exercise for an assessment centre for recruiting Team Leaders in a financial services environment. When looking for an exercise, the learning points in Acquatic Experience corresponded really well with the competencies we were looking for of customer focus, team work, problem solving and decision making and leadership. It then worked really well in pratcice with assessors being able to clearly observe behaviours of individuals to measure them objectively against the competencies. The participants thoroughly enjoyed the exercise, and though we didn't spend time drawing out the learning points as in a training session, the trainer's notes were used to help inform individual feedback given after the assessment centre. A really enjoyable and rewarding exercise for both participants and observors, don't be put off by the list of supplies needed.

Aquatic Experience was a great team building activity, which made the delegates think about their own roles within their group to ensure that after the 45 minute time slot, they had a complete business plan. You may want to extend the 45 minute time slot to 60 minutes because only one of the four groups had actually built the tank in the time given. Extra time for presenting back is important and I gave them 5 minutes each to put their business case across.

I needed an activity at short notice that would give a trainee team leader an opportunity to practice their skills at briefing and managing a small project, and this fitted the bill perfectly.

I adapted the brief, as I wanted the team leader to practice briefing the team, where they have a huge amount of information. The info normally doled out by Sandy Shore was given to the team leader as part of their 'project brief', with instructions to convey this info to the team as part of the briefing. The briefing went well, with the key points being outlined, although a few were overlooked, they were picked up when the team asked questions - illustrating the value of getting other people's perspective on a task - because they picked up on things that the leader had not necessarily viewed as important. This organisation work in a highly regulated environment, and leaders have a tendency to brief teams only on the elements they feel are important, which can lead to costly errors - so this activity really helped them to see the need for exploring all restrictions , and their implications - such as a 'safe egg laying site' that is only big enough for mummy fish!! The implications of the different sizes of the male/female fish were only spotted by one relatively quiet member of the team, and was a big plus.

The key learning came with trying to co-ordinate the range of tasks within the project. Team members came to agreement on a company name as a full group, and were then invited to volunteer for different elements of the task according to where they thought their skills lay. The team leader kept a watching brief, maintaining morale and checking progress (or so they thought!) whilst not being directly involved in any of the tasks themselves.

Unfortunately, the team leader took their 'helicopter view' a little too high above the clouds. When checking progress, it was just a 'how are you doing' surface check. This resulted in the construction phase only beginning 10 minutes before the deadline for completion, and all hands being called to the pump to construct rocks, greenery etc, only to realise that there was a fatal flaw - they were missing one side of the tank, and had no time or materials left to construct it!

The 'sales' team did a fab job of blagging the presentation, with no model to show, focusing on the fact that they did not want to pre-empt Sandy Shore's own ideas, and that the resulting tank would be entirely bespoke!

Great learning, they had fun doing it, were hopelessly devastated when they realised their mistake at the final moment, and huge learning for all, including how they responded with apportioning blame! - great activity - thanks very much!!

I used Boosting Glasstap Grange as a Problem Solving exercise but it can be used for a variety of skills as it really makes people work together. The exercises involve analytical skills and decision making as well as team work. As the group had done a creative problem solving session previous to this exercise which also involved decision making it helped them practice their decision making skills.

What a great little exercise! I ran it with a small team who have struggled to work together, particularly as two of the team have very strong personalities and tend to dominate any discussions or team meetings.

In just two hours working on "Boosting Glasstap's Future" it was evident what strengths each player could bring to bear that would create a synergy not previously observed. The two strongest characters both proved to be 'ideas' people whereas one of the two quieter ones naturally assumed a support and research role, checking calculations, finances and researching the various options available such as property development choices. The most interesting discovery was with the youngest member of the team who turned out to be a quiet genius! She sat back, observed everyone's input and then concisely, accurately and unfailingly came up with the most appropriate solution.

The outcome of the exercise was a comprehensive debrief where the team analysed their own and other's contributions and discussed how this should enable them to work better as a team in the future. I saw that they were genuinely surprised to realise that each one of them had a valid and valuable contribution to make.

The real surprise, however, was just how involved they got in the exercise. They all became thoroughly immersed in trying to build a better future for the town and, even during the debrief, were still mulling over ideas. The funniest bit of the morning was where one participant stood by the window looking at our carpark trying to work out how many parking spaces they could fit into the site they were planning on buying at Glasstap. Priceless!

Bringing the cows home was excellent for these managers whom need to be goal directed, attend to detail and accuracy, and individuals who need to apply their logical reasoning ability. It also immediately brings out the team work and co-operation between participants. Bringing the cows home was very challenging and they had to communicate constantly in order to get to their answers. These participants were very specific in their work and were very sure that the routes they identified were precise and accurate. They were wrong and double checked! (Checking up on why they had less routes than the answer sheet indicated took a bit long, but they even got a method in order to check why their answers differed from the training program's).

Loved 'Bringing the Cows Home'. It was a delight for staff who had no idea what was coming and a great opportunity to get them working in their new teams. The game was involved without being too daunting and the range of problem solving techniques all came to the fore. Great fun, educational and terrific for team building and attention to detail. Interestingly nearly every group didn't read the brief properly!

I use this exercise regularly to start off a module on Problem Solving for first-line managers. It has proven to be a very effective lead into further discussions on the problem solving process. Most delegates find themselves jumping straight into the exercise without first analysing the problem or discussing alternative strategies for solving it. I have to say that very few are successful in getting close to the right answer in the time allowed, but they usually have fun trying and always draw out some excellent learning points that we refer back to as we progress on through the module.

I used the Filing Frenzy on a Change Management course for first line managers. It was a brilliant icebreaker as it got the participants involved from the start whilst also illustrating the key messages about change and how we react to it. It was amazing to see how something simple can still have an impact on people when you change the instructions slightly. For some people the change was minimal and they changed their approach but for some (particular those who had won the previous rounds and had got their process down to a fine heart) felt quite disappointed by the change.

I had to run a Team Building event with the members of the Inbound Sales Teams; a couple of the Team Leaders were new to the company and the associates had recently been asked to make a few outbound calls at quieter periods, which they were not happy about. As a result they blamed the Team Leaders for not standing up for them. The situation had deteriorated a bit and it was time to bring the department together.

I got my inspiration from Trainer's Library and I selected Glasstap Sheep Trials as an exercise. The results were amazing! The participants were a bit weary at the beginning and they were not talking too much amongst each other. By the time the first group started the exercise all participants were discussing the other group's performance amongst themselves and asking their team leader to communicate with them in a different way or using the same techniques if those were working.

When the exercise finished I was very pleased to notice the complete transformation of the dynamics and communication of the department. There was laughter all round and they were all very keen to participate during the debrief. The questions suggested by Glasstap were fantastic at getting the message across and the relationship in the department improved dramatically as a direct result of the team building day.

What a fantastic activity to run! Thank you Glasstap!!!!

Hold the front page! was a great activity and most said this was their favourite of the three we had completed that day. You will need the whole time given for this, do not try to cut corners to reduce the time by taking out some of the stories or breaking news, this works fantastically well with the time given. We did come up with an alternative ending for the breaking news right at the end of the session as we thought it could be more exciting and this worked well. We ran this activity with four groups in the same room which worked; however you may want to separate the groups so that they are unaware of what each other are doing.

I use Hold the Front Page in Team Leader training. I originally included the exercise to bring out the Leadership Skills of participants. I have found that in addition you can strongly relate Learning Styles and Team Stages. I run the exercise on Day 2 of my programme revisiting Honey and Mumford Learning Styles and Tuckman’s team stages which we have covered the previous day.

Hold the Front Page brings out the competitive streak in participants and on several occasions I have been ‘locked out’ of the syndicate rooms as I deliver more ‘breaking news’ or additional news stories.

I’ve had people holding their breath over the potential demise of Nobby, Mrs. Tuffy’s dog!! I can’t honestly say Mrs. Biggly’s safety is met with quite the same relief. Still we are a nation of animal lovers they say?? This gives a great insight to behaviours and how people manage others and potential difficult situations.

Another ‘side’ to the exercise is the creativity people demonstrate. Often those who are less vociferous come into their own when their creative side is allowed to shine in order to deliver the best front page.

This, along with a host of other exercises from your portfolio, is very powerful, well received and a great fun way of demonstrating a wide range of skills.

I have now run Hotel Doldrums twice as a 1 day team build exercise.

Marketing Team
This team is quite large (24 in total) and is spread throughout the country. Their opportunity to spend time together as a team is limited. Also, the team manager knew some elements of the team very well and others hardly at all having ‘inherited’ them following a company take over. A big part of this team build day was to get to know each other on a personal as well as a business basis.

I ran the exercise after going through some personality profiling. It was really powerful to see how people responded in their preferred behavioural style and perhaps even more so how their fellow team members recognised the behaviours!!

Not surprisingly there was an abundance of creativity going around, when the analytical people tried to intervene there were some ‘clashes’ although always controlled, usually ending up in peels of laughter. It did, however, demonstrate the need to listen to all team members and give everyone the chance to contribute. A good learning for the stronger personalities in the group. Time management was an issue and gave the team manager an insight as to why and how deadlines sometimes slip. She left the session with a strategy for managing this within the team more effectively in the future.

The meetings with the Bank Manager weren’t particularly successful. I’m not sure whether this was the way I positioned this aspect of the training or not. The overall feedback was that the meetings contributed very little and took away valuable time.

A number of leaders emerged. Some based on personalities and others on expertise again demonstrating the advantages of having a good mix within the team.

The need for a 3 month plan did give focus to think about the future. The team are often required to be reactive, rapid change being a trait in our industry. Having to plan in a structured way for the future was a useful learning and demonstrated how much control you get when you are able to do this.

The final presentations were very light on financial information which was recognised as something of a problem given that they were for the bank manager!! Known your audience eh? There was much emphasis on how they would ‘pretty-up’ the respective hotels, what fun things they could offer and how they would improve the experience to encourage the return of guests. Not so much thought around what would happen if people didn’t return!! Glass half full perhaps?

The most valuable things taken from the exercise were:
Recognising and be able to utilise the strengths within the team.
The importance of planning Thinking inside the box as well as outside it!
Raising awareness of financial implications around the roles of the team members.
Working as a team.

Strategic Sales Team
I ran the exercise again 4 weeks later with a smaller team of strategic sales people. This team have huge transformation in front of them due to changes in our business so it was good to give them a subject they were totally unfamiliar with.

The team had slightly less time which proved a challenge and a learning point for me here is that a smaller team doesn’t necessarily mean less time.

There was definitely a more financial focused approach and less creativity. As with the previous group the presentations ran over time neither groups having practised. They would argue they didn’t have time….I would argue they should have made time!!! Creativity was limited in this session and it highlighted the need to involve other areas and expertise within the business for the new challenges ahead.

This team had a brand new manager who was eager to demonstrate his style. He joined in the exercise which proved really valuable and his team could see he would not ask them to do anything he wouldn’t or couldn’t do himself.

We did not include the bank manager role this time and in all honesty I don’t think the exercise lost anything as a result.

Again the need for a 3 month plan was very powerful and I would say that this was the most valuable aspect for both sessions.

All in all, this is an excellent exercise with an incredible amount of learning from it. It has been a huge success and I will/would use it again and again.

I joined a little over one month ago and recently used the team building exercise Island of Opportunity at a senior managers three day transformative conflict/mediation workshop. I chose this activity as an evening event on Day 2 because the exercise allowed for team building, some fun and laughter after two days of role-playing conflict scenarios, and it also contained key learnings for trainee mediators. Specifically the exercise-

- was aligned with the general workshop content (negotiation, understanding of needs and collaboration to reach a solution Vs aggression and conflict provoking tactics).

- allowed for team building as some participants did not know one another but worked in the same unit.

- provided light relief after 2 full days of discussing conflict which produces low energy in the group.

- can be used to discuss cultural aspects of teams/organisations and how they might deal with differences/disputes.

I provided a bag of wigs and party hairpieces, beads and other materials for those who wanted to create their own ‘tribal’ attire. Each of the teams in the exercise (4) used the gear or made their own tribal dress. No coercion on my part to dress-up. The exercise worked very well and completed the day with a huge amount of fun. I left the debrief until the following morning (Day 3) when everyone was a little more focussed!

Very versatile exercise with good learning points for teams and you can use it with or without the hairpieces.

I have recently used the Island of Opportunity Excercise as part of a training session incorporating Influencing and Persuasive Techniques. I used this excercise at the end of a day long session and it certainly help embedd their knowledge and it was an excellent way for them to hone the negotiation and persuasive techniques that were learned during the earlier training session. I am planning to incorporate into our Communications Course as our staff got a huge benefit. I look forward to running more sessions with this really fun and easy to adapt excercise.

Island of Opportunity has provided a really useful exercise within an assertiveness course. It allowed delegates to practice being more assertive through negotiations and pulled out some very interesting and useful learning points.

I was in the middle of designing a 3-day sales training course when I ran out of inspiration for exercises on negotiation skills. I decided to check Trainers' Library and I came across "Island of Opportunity". I have now been using this exercise for about 10 months as part of the sales training induction for new outbound and inbound starters.

Island of Opportunity opens up my 3-day sales course as it is a great icebreaker and it really gets people talking to each other. On the other hand, it also allows me to get to know all my delegates quite in depth; it is really easy to spot the quiet ones, bossy ones, argumentative ones, logical ones, etc.

I really like the fact that delegates have a lot of fun with this exercise while learning the skills that they will need in order to sell and negotiate with both internal and external customers. The debriefing questions suggested at the end of the exercise are extremely effective at highlighting the key learning points of the activity. All in all this is one of the best exercises I have ever used and as a result I have also used it as part of Negotiation Skills training and Coaching Training for Team Leaders, as the Island is fantastic at ensuring that participants realise the importance of communication skills and understanding other people's point of view.

Many thanks for a great activity!

I used Island of Opportunity for team negotiating on a Negotiating skills course recently. I had teams of two representing each of the tribes who arrive on the island and need to decide how to divide it according to their needs. I found it worked really well and better than a previous team negotiation I had used on this course. Island of Opportunity really helps the negotiators to think about what everyone’s needs are and to negotiate according to need in a problem-solving way, instead of taking up positions. Occasionally, they were in danger of taking positions but the brief provides enough information to enable them to think of ways to barter and that reinforces the idea that you may have something you can offer easily which will be valuable to the other side. It provided some good learning points for team coaching, as the new information being offered by other tribes in the negotiation prompted discussion between team members, and helped them to realise the need to present a united front. Everyone enjoyed it and I was able to give lots of good feedback about the constructive negotiating behaviours they had displayed.

The delegates found being part of a tribe was fun. The brief does state to start the activity with as little explanation as possible, I did explain the basics of the activity and found that some were confused by this; in future I will give them the information and leave them to work it out. This activity works better for people who do not know each other; there is more scope for aggressive negotiation, rather than group discussion.

I have now used Jack Fruggles Treasure more than 30 times over the past few years. As well as using for team building/development events, I have also used the activity in training sessions on topics such as problem solving, decision making, and leadership modules. It has also been a great activity to build into my Belbin Team profiling sessions, as it clearly highlights different ways in which individuals contribute towards a team. What a great activity it is and it is so versatile, fun, challenging and can be adapted in so many ways.

Many thanks for a super resource; it has brought me and my delegates many hours of fun with so many valuable learning points…

I have used this exercise twice, firstly for Teambuilding and Leadership and secondly for Time Management. On both occasions the participants enjoyed the exercise and learned valuable lessons from the experience.

The instructions provided are excellent and the questions under the various headings, such as Leadership, Teambuilding etc are a useful support for the trainer. All the participants have stated that the time goes very quickly during this exercise, so it is ideal for use to highlight planning and organising of resources for any task they may encounter back in the workplace. Regarding Teamwork and Leadership, the participants learn about how they react under pressure in a new situation, which reflects well in the workplace as we are often faced with new challenges! I would recommend laminating the cards as in their enthusiasm the participants tend to write on the cards (even when asked not to!).

I used exercise as part of a team day for a new team of student’s wardens here at York St John University. The group had only come together that week and many of them didn’t know one another prior to the training. After the week long training programme they would be located remotely from one another but would still be expected to work as a team.

The exercise was met with some frustrations to start with but it went down well and the element of competition really got the smaller teams bonding. There were so many relevant learning points to draw from this exercise; approaches to team work, utilising individual skills, different approaches to problem solving, different personalities, not always having all the information upfront, making sure everybody is enabled to engage in the process etc. etc.

In facilitating the exercise you need to do your preparation, and make sure you are clear on your role, once people start asking you questions you have to be on your toes!

I would definitely use this exercise again, its good fun!

I've used Jack Fruggle's Treasure and the team LOVED it. Great fun. Challenging. And lots of observable behaviours for discussion.

We have used this team building activity as part of a team building event with a very broad team of 40, some of whom have minimum contact with each other. Despite one or two initial reservations by the group about team building activities in general, it was well received and even the most reserved member of the group was passing cards around and puzzling over the answers. I would suggest reading the questions carefully before the start and hanging onto the answer sheet for the later parts of the exercise. It is also important to avoid 'helping' teams stuck with the numbers for as long as possible. It was very positively evaluated.

It is an excellent exercise if you are looking for something that can be easily tailored to cover subject specific knowledge in a fun way as you have the opportunity to replace some or all of the general knowledge questions with ones that relate to the topic in question.

I had a team leader who is incredibly task focused, but could not see the effect their hands-on involvement was having on the team. This activity really helped.

The team leader, having briefly seen the activity and flipped through the cards, briefed their team. The briefing was very rushed and gave little opportunity for questions, and the team had not seen the cards, so were unable to 'see' what had to be done - a huge learning point in terms of helping teams understand their brief.

Logistically, this task caused the task-focused team leader big problems. They wanted to (and did) get stuck into solving the clues themselves. The difficulty this posed was that there was no actual 'management' of the task - no planning or organisation. Everyone took a batch of clues and did their best to solve them, sharing their answers with whoever would listen, with the result that some answers were not heard, and no-one kept track of what had been solved and what hadn't - utter chaos!

Once they realised the significance of the numbers on the cards, there was a great opportunity to pause and re-organise, but this was missed. Work continued in fragmented style, with some people solving clues that had already been completed. Towards the end, as time pressure was mounting, the leader began attempting to fill in the blanks in the verse 'hangman' style. The team made a significant leap forward at this point, but did not check their answers against the clue cards to see if they fit - with the unfortunate result that one key word was incorrect, and this threw the whole verse out.

Great learning, as they realised that there are a range of ways to solve problems, and the importance of cross-checking info to validate their ideas. Thanks for another great activity.

When I am out and about training, I often have to improvise with the name plates, and they end up as a piece of card folded in half. However, this is excellent for running this activity.

I ask the group to write their name on their name card. Then I ask them to open it out, and on the reverse, to note the answer to 5 questions (keeping them secret from the person sitting next to them).

I then pick 5 random questions from the questionnaire (or from my own library) – but I do choose those that require short answers.

I collect in the cards, and then read out the 5 answers, leaving the group to guess who it is. When they guess correctly I hand back the name plate to the individual.

It is great to run this exercise with a team who work together, as they are often amazed at what they find out about each other. I also find that it opens their mind up to the learning, as they have already identified that they don’t know their colleagues as much as they thought. Questions that work particularly well are those that go back in time, such as favourite subject at school, and first car/record.

An added benefit for the trainer in running this exercise…it is a great way of remembering people!

Murder at Glasstap Grange can be used as both team building exercise and a way to identify leadership skills with individuals. I used it as part of a leadership workshop. Once the delegates had worked out [the twist] a clear leader came out and took direction of the group deciding what should be done. If you split the delegates into two groups it can become quite competitive. It is also useful to see how a team works together. Some people just guess at the answer and others spend time trying to work out logically who is the murderer.

The exercise was well explained and extremely adaptable to any situation. I work in a Mental Health Care setting, and in addition to the team/management issues already covered by your material, my staff came up with new and very pertinent ideas, such as the role of Stigma in society. In this exercise, many were convinced that the secretary was the killer, and most cited her criminal record as being crucial in convincing them that she was the killer. This taught us a very relevant point, that even in settings where people believe themselves to be aware and immune to the danger of stigmatising people because of their past, we are also in danger of falling into that trap. It also gave us some insight into the thinking of people outside our organisation and how they may tend to judge our patients because of their history.

We have used Murder at Glasstap Grange a number of times in college and our staff love it! They turn into detectives and get very involved in the task. The feedback we get is that they enjoy the task and also realise the rationale behind it and the fact that they have got to communicate to work together to be effective.

We have used Murder at Glasstap on several ocasions for events such as away days, team building and communication events. It is an effective tool which enables the group to learn key points on communication and team working in order to solve the mystery. This exercise is one that we will continue to use due to the positive feedback and comments we have received. The exercise can be used for various group sizes.

The plenary sessions after the exercise have been extremely effective. We have focussed on areas such as communicating with peers and the the differing roles that people play within groups. It has also been effective in looking into people's styles such as reflector, activist etc.

I would recommend this to any organisation.

I recently used this resource with a large team on their first team development away day. It was hugely successful and great fun to do. The team was a large one, newly created and not very familiar with each other and each other’s style and preferences for working. The exercise provided ample opportunity to get into all of these issues.

I split the group into four smaller teams of 6 to run the exercise.

The timing suggested was perfect and kept the teams interested and working well. The hand-outs were clear and easy to read. All four teams got into the spirit of it right away.

One team solved the murder - just in time. One nearly got there and the other two were way off. None of that really mattered though, it was the discussions we had afterwards that really emphasised the value of the exercise.

We covered:

1) Communications and communication style.
2) Influencing others and allowing oneself to be influenced despite one’s better judgement (going with the flow, going with the majority).
3) Sharing of information and making assumptions about everyone’s level of knowledge and understanding.
4) Problem solving approaches.
5) Time and process management.

That’s pretty good value from one exercise. In addition though, I had done a Belbin team role exercise earlier in the day and it gave everyone the opportunity to spot the different team roles in action and provided food for thought about how the team could use its Belbin profile to best advantage.

At the end of the event, the team all went to the pub and took me along with them. It was interesting how much the conversations related to the exercise and the fun they had whilst working on it.

A by-product of all this is that I’ve been asked to run it again for a number of other teams in the organisation because they’ve heard the team members talking about it in the workplace since they got back from the event.

So, thank you for an excellent product which helped me to deliver a first class event. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone thinking of using it.

Recently we were asked to facilitate a session for a large team and were given very little detail as to what was required apart from that it should take around 1.5 hours and it should be interactive and fun. I stumbled accross the Trainers Library and was instantly attracted to alot of the icebreaker/team building activities. We were able to narrow down the many choices we had available, and our "client" loved the idea of the Murder at Glasstap Grange. The session was a huge success and the feedback we got was that the activity "met the brief of been fun and had some great team working lessons. It was also an excellent choice for groups that don't always work together as it got them working together quickly." This was something that we had never tried as a Learning and Development Team, but we are very pleased we gave it a go. Word has spread because we only just recently were asked to faciliate the session again to another team in our Organisation! Thanks for a great site and great ideas..it makes the process of finding something unique and fun much easier for us.

I have just come back into work having run the Pairs exercise yesterday at a Team Away Day. This was used as the last exercise of the day and I have to say worked extremely well. The team in question are based in different buildings within the authority and it demonstrated very effectively the need to communicate and problem share.

I ensured that all teams were in separate rooms and I would advise others to do the same. It was really interesting to see the risk takers within the team and people who took the role of leader within each team. The observers do play a vital role in the game and their feedback at the end was invaluable.

I would recommend this to any trainer facilitating a team day and the feedback received yesterday was that they really enjoyed it and the exercise was the best of the day.

Just had to write to let you all know about the Pirate Challenge exercise I recently ran. I had been looking for something to run as part of an assessment process for taking on level 3 apprentices. I finally plumbed for Pirate Challenge as it claimed to cover many of the qualities we were looking for. I got all the materials together, card, paper, silver foil and play doh, I didn't have any modelling clay. I even produced some doubloons for added effect. On the day of the assessment I set the rooms up including the Broken mast Inn with sweets and drinks available should they be required. At ten o'clock we started the exercise and I read out the instructions, although I drew the line at doing it in a pirate accent.

The groups divided and the discussion began. Initially the discussions between groups, whilst at the Broken Mast, were very good-natured. However as time progressed and strategies changed the discussions became more aggravated as teams tried to outwit and out bid others. Towards the end, normally mild mannered staff were double crossing others as the will to win took over and started to cloud some judgements. By the end, interestingly, the team that had decided from the start that they would just build and adopt an aggressive under cutting policy won the day.

In terms of the assessment the exercise was invaluable as the assessor were able to see clearly who was displaying the qualities they were looking for. From a trainers point of view this was a fantastic exercise, enjoyed both by the participants and by myself. I?d recommend you try it, It?ll prove a huge success.

I was recently asked to put together a one day Team Building session with 35 delegates, away from their business. So, I decided to use Pirate Challenge for the main exercise of the day. Each team had a table with all their materials on them, including a large brown envelope which contained their Pirate brief, their doubloons, and their Pirate names – I just chose these so each team could be identified i.e. Flying Dutchman, Black Pearl and so on… Each table also had a laminated name plate which was displayed for all the other teams to see.

I nominated two of the managers to play the Tavern keepers, again, they had a large picture of a skull and cross-bones on their desk, along with a large bell and stopwatch to keep time.

The groups also had to write their sea shanties on flip-chart paper and in their groups, once we had all seen each others ships, they had to sing their shanty, again this was a great giggle and we even had some groups getting into their pirate roles by dancing a jig whilst they sang!!

The day went fantastically well and the feedback I received from the Pirate Challenge was excellent, they all thoroughly enjoyed the session and it got 3 teams, who were not used to working together really working as 4 tight-knit (Pirate) teams. The motivation levels were high in the room, we had a great buzz going and the competition was fierce. At the end of the session they all proudly displayed their pirate ships and they now take pride of place in the middle of their office, as a constant reminder of how important it is to work together as a large team, and not 3 different departments when working towards a common business goal, how imperative it is for us to ask open, probing questions to gain understanding and clarification of a goal/objective. How to negotiate effectively, which we all have to do sometimes in business, whether it is externally with suppliers or internally for a process change for example.

Pirate Challenge, for me really gets the creative juices flowing, I found people who would normally class themselves as quiet, reflectors not being able to draw a straight line on a piece of paper were the most vocal, creative delegates in the room. I have now been asked to run the same session with other business groups and relating it to their department objectives. This session is a great all round learning experience that can be tied into virtually any learning objective/scenario.

A must for any trainer!! It’s an Excellent session to run!!

I used the Pirate Challenge for the first time yesterday at a staff conference at the University of Glamorgan. I only had one hour to run a workshop on Personal Skills in Action, so had to adapt the Challenge a little to fit the time we had (less ship's components, less opening and closing of the Inn). So I was a little anxious as to whether it would work, but it went down a storm!

I had 30 people in the workshop, so divided them into 6 'gangs' of 5 'pirates', which proved to be a very good number for this exercise. It took them a little while to grasp what was required of them, but once they'd got the hang of it they threw themselves into it with much enthusiasm! There were some quite suspect strategies and tactics ("well, we are ruthless pirates afterall" seemed to be the justification!), but also some demonstrations of excellent planning, team work, creative thinking and negotiating. Several gangs decided (sensibly) to rethink their strategies after about half an hour, which was a very good learning point. There was also a need for some conflict-resolution skills to be practiced, as members of gangs expressed conflicting opinions on how to approach the task. Again, this was a very good learning point.

In our discussions after the exercise, we focused on team work - how the gangs had worked effectively (or not!) within their own teams and how they had interacted with other teams. Issues around the importance of every member understanding the team goal and their own and each other's roles were drawn out.

I highly recommend the Pirate Challenge. It's not only great fun, but it tests so many skills - planning, time management, negotiation, conflict resolution, prioritisation, communication....the list goes on. I have found it hard to find suitable exercises to run with larger groups, but this one fit the bill perfectly. It requires only easily obtained and cheap resources - another important factor for many trainers on tight budgets!

And just finally....Why are pirates called pirates?

They just aaaaarr!

I have recently completed my first training session on The Customer Experience and used the module Pitfalls & Trampolines. This was excellent, it involved all the delegates who thoroughly enjoyed this fun exercise and many commented on the fact that they were learning whilst having fun.

We use this as part of our induction. Firstly to identify transferable skills of new recruits and secondly to lay the foundations of the Customer Services skills we expect. We don’t always use the board. Often we will ask the questions and award points. Having put the group into pairs the ones who gather the most points are the winners and we award small prizes/privileges etc. Works very well to set expectations.

The training team use this exercise as part of a two day Presentation course. It is useful to use the exercise as a quiz at the end of day one to summarise what they have learnt throughout the day. If you use the questions as a quiz rather than on a snakes and ladders board I find that it is easier to set up and more competitive as each team shouts out their team name before answering.

I have successfully used Pitfalls and Trampolines for a couple of years now with great results. I usually use the exercise as an opener for a 9 month Management programme for Assistant Managers on an internal development programme. The game is part of a day long Presentation Skills module, which introduces delegates to the most effective way of presenting a Case Study they are about to work on to our Board of Directors some 4 weeks later. I have had tremendous fun with the exercise... All delegates have agreed that, whilst public speaking is not necessarily ever going to be their favourite management duty, they nevertheless learn lots of useful tips from the day which they can use again and again.

I used Pitfalls and Trampolines for Presentation Skills on a course last week. I was looking for something to summarise the course, and this fitted the bill perfectly! It gave people an opportunity to demonstrate what they had learned, and to review techniques that maybe had only been 'skimmed' at the time of discussion. Best of all, it did so in a light hearted and fun way. The competitive element was very strong in the training room that afternoon! Thanks for a great activity.

This exercise is brilliant! I used it for the Telesales training throughout the course of the day and it was a fantastic energiser which continued with the learning. I split the group into 3 teams playing against each other in small teams - but also made a competition between the teams to see who could come up with the best suggestions - this worked really well as sales teams are generally very competitive. It also meant that within the small teams, people co-operated more with each other to come up with great suggestions - competition within competition. I did laminate the cards so that I can use the exercise again and again - which, for me makes sense as the work is done just once.

I recently used the Pitfalls and Trampolines Telesales game to round off a half day sales training session and it went down brilliantly.

The 2 teams really got stuck in and became quite competitive and it summarised the learning points so well. I've been asked to provide some training for receptionists and was thinking about the game and how it could be adapted to them, but no need, you do one for customer service also. Thank you.

Although I have only used Police Chase four times in my team building events – it is a fabulous activity that always goes down well with the delegates. Although you need to put the work in up-front to make sure that you are organised and comfortable with it – it is really worth the effort. I think 2 facilitators are needed, especially when there are 2 criminal gangs. If you are running an event with a competitive edge – it is a winner. It explores trust, decision making, time management and leadership amongst so many other things. The delegates always love it - it is like a modern day battleships!

The activity itself proved useful in providing a vehicle for observation of delegates’ team and individual behaviours. By setting the activity in a competitive framework, delegates’ natural behaviours come to the front. It was possible therefore to identify leaders and followers styles and identify passive, aggressive and assertive behaviours.

In this setting, we saw more varied behaviours in the criminal gang simply because we had a split of 6 criminal gang members and 2 police team members. This was just a result of the delegate numbers but clearly with larger groups we would expect to see more from both teams.

The activity needs strong facilitation skills post exercise in order to draw out findings and relate them to the objective which has been set. Because the delegates are so involved with the exercise and having fun, our experience is that they do not notice a lot of the behaviours in themselves or others.

For this reason, we used a video camera during the exercise and were able to run parts of the replay to highlight behaviours. Not only was this enlightening for delegates but it helps the trainers to demonstrate key points without any risk of denial on the part of the delegates! The delegates also find this review entertaining and funny.

Equally we felt that the facilitator should also record this information in the spirit of fairness and accuracy! To help this we designed two sheets for the facilitator as a pre-prepared template to make it easy to record. Ed's note: These have now been formally added to the exercise.

In summary, a useful exercise which can be adapted to meet several objectives involving team and individual behaviours. Good facilitation skills are essential in order to have meaningful discussions and we would also recommend the use of video review.

Our customer has booked another 8 of the courses based on very positive delegate feedback and so we will continue to include the Police Chase activity with these courses.

What can I say!? This activity was a massive success. I was slightly worried as I ran it for a group quite a bit larger than it suggests in the brief. I had 8 people in each team and there were 4 teams. In my situation it worked really well and helped us think about how to structure communication between teams as undoubtedly the large number of people placed a strain on what was discussed and how the conversations took place during the sections in which teams were brought back together.

Trainers' Library offer a website that your participants can enter attempts of the safe code into. I had originally intended to use this approach and even purchased a pay as you go broadband stick to assist with this – however, when I got to the venue it was a broadband black spot and I couldn’t connect. In the end this worked in my favour as participants had to write their attempts on a flip chart and it meant they could refer to their previous guesses collectively to help them along.

This is a well thought through activity. It does require a bit of extra kit, but it’s worth the investment.

I use the exercise with a leadership team to discuss the impact of virtual teams. Each team represented a geography. I shorten the times given in the exercise to increase the pressure on the teams. Great fun and learning, resulting in key takeways for every leader, based on goals, process and indivdual behaviours. Highly recommeded and five stars.

I ran this activity as part of a Team Bonding programme with 14 corporate bankers of mixed cultural background. Overall it was a success: energetic, thanks to the need to go to meeting points, usefully frustrating and revealing. Main learning points: information sharing, attention to detail, communication, listening to each other, time management. Duration including debriefing: 2.5 hours with a mix of native and non-native speakers of English.

This particular team was very quick to spot the wrongly delivered letters in their sets – and one of the CEOs immediately blamed me for having made a mistake, which provided a great learning moment!

The greatest challenge was structuring the information sharing. This group tried to find out their names mainly by phone calls: “Are you Alice?” which didn’t help much, and they did not use a flipchart for some structured elimination until their 3rd meeting. Also they did not divide tasks within the teams: everybody went for the codes. When I mentioned this later on, they replied that the brief just said: find the codes. Another learning point.

I did need to help them correct the birth order of the daughters. The entire group got stuck on the paragraph that says Alice is the youngest if only by 4 minutes. Because Esther is mentioned in the next sentence as “so small when she was born”, everyone logically deduces that she and Alice are the twins. I must admit that I agree with the deduction, and I find this paragraph slightly contrived as a red herring. Without help I don’t think they would have solved the problem.

Warnings for the trainer: This activity is challenging for everyone. Take time to familiarise yourself with the material. I created 4 flipchart sheets for the debriefing, on which I indicated, per team, the various vital clues.

Also think carefully about logistics. With 4 different locations it is physically impossible for 1 trainer to monitor all teams, but you do need this for a valuable debriefing. I took an assistant. Also if the teams are unclear on when they will meet up, it can quickly turn chaotic and although that is in itself useful, you still want to at least appear to be in control as a trainer. The brief does not say whether all teams should attend the 5-min meetings. I decided to impose this, with at least 1 delegate from each team. Also I specified that a meeting could not begin until at least 1 delegate per team was present.

TIP: As a prop / souvenir I created the Elixir of Excellent Leadership using small bottles of flood flavouring in alluring colours (raspberry, banana, lemon). I soaked off the label and replaced it with one showing the name of the elixir, date and occasion, participant’s name, our logo and the client’s logo. I placed them in a wooden box and opened this at the end of the debriefing.

I ran the session last week with a group of very technical and clever Offshore Engineering guys working in the oil and gas industry. It was the final exercise after 3 days of training in a variety of interpersonal skills such as time management, communication, influencing, conflict management and assertiveness. We also did the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and this exercise enabled people to work brilliantly to type! The majority of people are quite detail conscious but also introverted. This meant that they spent the first 45 minutes in their groups trying to work out the codes. It took another 15 minutes for them to have their first meeting. (I deliberately left them as I needed them to demonstrate the point that whilst some thinking is good you also need to do some action at some point!) They struggled with the inter group communication due to a few technical issues with the hotel phones but they still weren’t properly prepared or structured for the meeting which turned into a bit of a free for all with lots of conversations on the side and some misleading information given by people who didn’t have all the facts. One group lost the plot completely and said they weren’t going to share – great for some conflict management practice!! They also realised that having meetings earlier would have made a huge difference – a good learning point for their working environment.

So overall it worked very well – they didn’t achieve the task as people made assumptions or gave random responses which threw the other team members – but this really helped in discussing what happens back in the workplace.

Thank you so much for another cracking activity – the amount of information is staggering and you’ve done a fantastic job – there’s no way I could have put this together without hours and hours of work so thank you!

Just wanted to say how effective the Remote Teams activity is - I used it today with a team of 18 people who work in 3 different locations/buildings. I was a little apprehensive of using it as it seemed quite complicated but once they had been given their brief, it just took off and ran by itself. It definitely raised the key points. I would think with a larger group, you may need a helper but with 18 it was manageable with just one facilitator. The delegates virtually debriefed themselves, not needing much facilitator input. A really fun and useful activity, thanks!

This is a great exercise that was well received by a team of 35 managers who work in several different locations but came together for a team building day. We started the exercise the night before when they arrived for a dinner. They were given instructions that they were to find their fellow team members by the colour of star they were wearing. Then during dinner they were invited to get to know their team with the understanding that they would want to know what special skills and abilities each member brought to the team so they could allocate roles for the following day. After dinner they were asked to take 3 team photographs which included training their astronaut for flight. The cards from the digital cameras were then loaded quickly onto a laptop in the bar and within minutes we had a slide show of amusing photos set to music which set the scene for the following morning.

The ice breaker on the morning was then to name their planet and to design a flag that represented their planet.

Once the director had introduced the purpose of the event with his own amusing presentation we moved into the Remote Teams exercise properly. What I have discovered is that it is very difficult to do this with only one ‘Faseel Tater'. I was so busy dealing with the astronauts coming to ‘Lurn Ing’ with their responses that I failed to notice that everyone had started to move around the tables. The next time I do this I will brief the whole room and not just the Astronauts and will ensure they understand the basic principles including where their Alliance are based.

The puzzles are shaded from blue to green and yet by the end of the exercise one planet had a huge stack of green pieces and another table had a huge stack of blue pieces and nothing had been assembled! Needless to say there were many lessons to be learned and in future I would build in a second exercise on a similar theme so that they could apply what they had learned.

The response that I had to the whole day was fantastic and it has already led to several further developmental days. I would heartily recommend this exercise for any team that is having communication issues or the old ‘working in silos’ issues due to lack of geographical contact.

After being given the task to conduct a team building event around a Christmas party conference I turned to Glasstap for some inspiration.

The company’s main objective was to bring all the remote teams together to increase better independent relationships and communication across all areas of the business. Glasstap (Zoe) gave me advice on how to run the team building exercise ‘Remote teams’ and it was a roaring success.

The scene was set with me dressing up as Faseel Tater (optional of course) and giving instructions to the teams of what was required for them to do. This got everyone in the mood and the astronaughts were selected to represent each team.

I would advise anyone running this with a large group to have additional helpers to give out the mosaic pieces (jigsaws) as it was very difficult to control and co-ordinate the activities happening throughout the exercise. Great idea to give them names and they also got into character as well; Dick Tater and Con Troller!!!!

The teams all worked together to build their mosaic and communication was strong within their chosen teams. At times the negotiations between other teams (not in their alliance) were fraught with individuals being combative and wanting to win out against the opposition.

When the exercise had finished you could see that strong independent relationships had formed. The debrief happened almost instantaneous and all of the participations recognised immediately what accelerated or impeded their progress which they then linked back to the organisation's objective.

Laughter and fun was had by all – Thanks Glasstap for a wonderful activity to run!!!!!!

I used The Hungry Chick Inn today as part of my time management course to see how well they could manage the time available and prioritise the workload. I had two delegates from the maintenance team so it was very “real life” to them and they coped with it very well.

We had discussed the urgent/important matrix earlier in the day and so they used it to sort the tasks into whether they were essential or non essential tasks and then whether they were urgent issues. I gave them the pest control card about half an hour in which upset them slightly!

I would give this 4/5 only because it only took them hour and a half rather than the full time that it said on the front of the brief, however this may be due to them working in a maintenance department and dealing with issues like those in the task all the time. It definitely helped them think about prioritisation which was my main aim.

I used this exercise to great effect when running a Managing People and Performance programme for both experienced and new line managers.

The exercise provoked a lot of thought in the smaller groups - and a diversity of thought when the groups presented their ideas which led to a lively and very productive discussion around methods for managing and improving performance.

The trainer notes gave suggestions which none of the groups had considered and so I added them as discussion topics with a "what if you did ...." - what impact would that have. This also produced a great discussion.

The learnings from the exercise proved very powerful - and the delegates were also able to link their findings to the work we had done on leadership and management style (using, among other things, the Putting on the Style case study on Trainers Library)

I use this activity in Time Management; however I use it to assess not only Time Management but also team work and sometimes Project Management. Delegates love this activity and get really involved with it; the activity promotes some healthy competition and delegates like to see how other teams have done, particularly if they have completed it within the time frame and to budget. This activity is always mentioned in the training feedback in a positive light.

I've used this in a variety of situations and I've found it easy to amend certain elements to suit particular groups. The layout of the material is perfect and very accessible.

Hungry Chick Inn was a fantastic game for our Graduate Management Trainees as the concept was brilliant in addressing issues not only of the obvious topics like financial awareness, teamwork, time management and delegation, but also prompted discussions on the cultural values and business objectives of our company. The post-activity discussions consolidated the learning that you would expect but also took the learning to another level, and for Graduate Trainees this is exactly what you want to achieve from training workshops. A very clever topic for hospitality environments and easy to both plan for and execute, but most importantly is a memorable experience for participants which addresses much bigger issues than you initially think it will.

A fantastic exercise that I use at the end of my time management workshop. Having spent time during the workshop discussing the urgent/important matrix it is interesting to observe the delegates behaviour and how they prioritise and manage their time. Depending on numbers I will often split my delegates into two groups. It is very interesting to see how the two groups work together, and provides additional discussion points in terms of how the two groups went about the task. The additional benefit is the challenge that the groups give to each other in terms of why or how they chose to ignore some tasks or prioritise others, a great benefit from the facilitators point of view!

In addition to the numerous learning outcomes from a time management perspective it also provides the opportunity to discuss effective team working.

I have been using the Hungry Chick Inn exercise for the past two years during public and tailored training events that I run for Project Management. I run about ten a year.

The exercise is very well received by all as it is fun but has some very strong learning objectives outlined in the material. Here are some more I have observed:

I have noted that one of the main areas all the teams seem to be oblivious to is the time element for the completion of exercise and to highlight this very important point I go round to the different groups and ask them how much time they have left to complete the exercise; it certainly brings the point home.

Another point is I am often asked if they can use their laptops to plan the event – I allow them to do this. However I have found that none of the groups who follow this route are able to complete the task because they too engrossed in the inputting of the data. It has shown the delegates that sometimes the computer can be a time robber on smaller time sensitive projects.

Finally one group actually deferred from opening the hotel within the time given, however they did give a very clear time plan of what they would do with the time to ensure when the hotel was opened it would meet the agreed objectives. It was felt by the groups, the trainer and the senior management team (who were observing) that this shows that as a project leader we should have the power to say no when we are asked to do something with an impossible time line –all part of managing upwards - something very difficult for lots of project managers who have to ‘manage’ more senior people.

All in all a very successful tool to test the skills of project management!

We used this as a planning exercise in the middle of a introduction to project management session and it gave the participants the opportunity to test out some of the theoretical ideas about project management, such as how to plan the order of activities and how to consider dependencies. This activity reinforced learning and added to the delegates understanding of the issues involved in successful project management.

The tight budget and timescales make this activity quite challenging and make the priorities that the group set very important. It also highlighted the ease with which projects can get buried under huge amounts of detail and the importance of getting an overall plan before considering individual tasks.

The participants had to work together and also consider splitting into smaller sub-groups to manage the project effectively. I like the activity as participants found it easy to understand and thought-provoking.

This works very well to demonstrate that working together brings greater rewards. At some point during the game there is usually an 'aha' moment. As board games are not common here, it is tricky to give instructions in such a way that the participants understand the concept without telling them exactly how to play it. After every session, participants tell me they are going to play it at home with their families (very large) to instil the concept of family spirit!

I have used Welsh Holiday with a wide range of groups and learners. I have used the exercise to enhance communication skills and also as a team building event tacked onto some work related exercises. Most delegates find the exercise a real challenge and surprisingly those with some experience of the 'great outdoors' rarely fare any better than those who claim an affinity with couch potatoes! My most memorable delegate was a person who claimed that the exercise would be 'a piece of cake' as they ran trips with the venture scouts every weekend - oddly, as it turned out, they failed to notice the sea on their map, and were unable to steer their 'family' to the meeting point!

I have used this exercise to great effect when training Coaching Programmes for middle to senior managers. Often, in business, there is a challenge when we need to coach someone to get to an outcome when they see things very differently from us – they hold a “different map of the world” – or in the case of this exercise, a different map of Wales.

Through questioning, each team has to establish what the other can see – before they can decide the best route to their outcome. The outcome is clear – the constraints etc are not – and they are not shared.

It is important as a coach that we learn to respect the coachee’s “map” and then lead them from there to an agreed outcome while helping them around the constraints that they can see along the way – this exercise is perfect for this.

Comments like “of course you must be able to see it” , and “there’s nothing to stop you doing that” are common – we are imposing our map onto our coachee – often a problem in business.

Delegates love the exercise as it draws out all the learning and key skills of coaching at the attitudinal level. I would highly recommend using it.